Celebration of Celt Invitation
Submitted by Gobae on Fri, 11/16/2007 - 12:36pm.
Official Business
Well met fellow Celts! May the blessings of your gods, goddesses and ancestors be upon you!
I am writing to officially invite the members of Tuatha de Bhriain to Celebration of Celts to participate in the Celtic Timeline. Celebration of Celts is a yearly pan-Celtic festival taking place this year on May 3rd & 4th at the Columbia county fairgrounds in Chatham, NY.
The Celtic Timeline is a special section of CoC where the public can see first hand the many varieties and expressions of Celtic cultures throughout time as portrayed by various Celtic re-enactors.
Since the primary goal of the Timeline is to educate the public about the Celts through accurate portrayals, we ask:
- Participants interact with the public, answering questions honestly and politely. Most of the public is woefully undereducated about the Celts. We in the Timeline would rather indicate lack of knowledge rather than guess or continue to perpetuate misconceptions (e.g. Braveheart and kilts, "bloodgrooves" in swords, etc).
- Fliers, brochures, and books about Celtic history are allowed. Educational resources such as these are welcomed. Additionally, fundraising items are allowed to be sold.
- Active demonstrations are encouraged. Even if the "demonstration" is simply going about camp life. The public understands more completely when they see things done for real. Engage the public when possible and reasonable to do so; let them handle crafts, play a game, or wear armor.
- No modern anachronisms in view while open to the public. At some point we all need modern items; at the very least keys and wallet. Such items simply need to be removed from the site or well hidden while the Timeline is open to the public.
- No SCA style personas or SCA style fighting. The Timeline is interested in showing the public known real world history not the history of the "Knowne World". Practicing with period correct armor and weapons (or wasters) is allowed as opposed to SCA stick fighting. SCA or Rennfaire customs such as "favors" and mugs worn from the belt are not appropriate in the Timeline.
- Have FUN! The immersion aspect of living in full period style without modern gear is a powerful experience; enjoy it!
Finally, Celebration of Celts provides firewood, and meal tickets (redeemable at the food vendors) as well as entrance tickets and parking passes for all participants. Additional questions and comments can be sent to gobae@oakandacorn.com or feel free to call 518-429-5270
My thanks for considering becoming a part if the Celtic Timeline. Hope to see you there!
Daniel Crowther
Celtic Timeline Chairperson
Celebration of Celts
period endeavors
Submitted by Comyn on Tue, 11/20/2007 - 6:49am.
This could serve as a wake up call to us, and it seems like a good incentive to start researching period crafts. While we are all schooled in the time period (scholarly reading on the period is required for membership), much of what we do at our events is not really from that period. I was trying to think what I could actually do to portray 5th century Celtic life for the public (which, we admit, has never really been our goal) besides 'hang out' in garb, and initially I was stumped.
My garb is mostly machine made (I need some hand made garb!), and I need to make some better ghillies (my bog shoes are OK, but not great). I don't own any really period looking instruments (my lute *looks* 16th century but isn't really even an actual lute), my tent is medieval, not dark ages, and I don't own a period looking Celtic knife or sword.
Here are a list of things I came up with for general comment:
- Weaving, perhaps on a loom of the period. Maybe Sabha and I can make a loom? I'm sure I won't hear any complaints about that idea :) Are there any examples of period looms?
- Sabha and the kids have been doing a lot of spinning with a spindle (not a wheel) which would be period, so they could do that maybe but that wouldn't keep the kids entertained for very long ;)
- Another idea might be to start doing some work with clay, maybe?
- Target practice with spears and axe throwing are always good, but they aren't specifically Celtic. (ie: they could really be any century, so it doesn't do much to pinpoint the 5th century in a 'timeline')
- I might be able to get away with doing Celtic knotwork and illumination using compass and rule (though this is really a later period - 6th through 9th C.) but I would need to research and put together a writing kit that would be period. If I was motivated enough, I would do a whole scribe thing - monks outfit, fake tonsure cap, desk with lamps and big old books with Celtic illumination in them. Hey, that would be cool!
There are no actual extant
Submitted by Gobae on Thu, 11/29/2007 - 4:11pm.
There are no actual extant Insular Celtic looms that I'm aware of. Most of the evidence for the loom type in those areas comes from fabric remnants (which much like tool marks indicating which tools were in existence) can be used to determine what types of looms were in existence.
Warp weighed looms (with 3-4 heddles) were most often used for general cloth making. While tablet looms were used to make trim and belts.
The most unusual thing about Irish looms of this period is that while they feel confident about WWL's being used they have no examples of the loom weights. Now, we've developed a couple of possible alternatives to stone weights and they do work just fine.
Now, I do have a book (in German) that shows some reconstructed Continental looms based on fragmentary evidence. They even have intact shuttles too.
Finally, a Greek/Classical archaeologist asked us why we were spooling the completed fabric on the top of the loom. Since there are no extant pieces to copy we admitted that we were merely copying a WWL from Castell Henylls Iron Age village in Wales). Her point was that drawings of Greek WWL's show them spooling on the bottom and running the warp up and then down the back. Thus effectively doubling the usable warp before the weights would need to be adjusted! We haven't had the time to test this, but it makes sense and there's no documentation that it's wrong.
Target practice
Submitted by BroganTDB on Thu, 12/06/2007 - 9:56am.
A few years ago I gave a sling making class at Preachain’s A&S day. It was lots O fun and the sling is very celtic. If anyone is interested I could revive the class I gave and provide sling “kits” and some litterateur on the subject. If the interest is there we can then have a slinging tourney at the next event… Whatcha think?
In Service,
~Brogan
Slings
Submitted by Faellon on Fri, 12/07/2007 - 10:48am.
I actually have one of the ones that you made that I got at the auction a few years ago. I would love to see a bit of a competition, maybe at Beltaine. I'm thinking that a lacrosse ball might be the perfect projectile for them. Tennis balls seem to be a bit on the light side...
Now that the holidays are
Submitted by Gobae on Mon, 01/21/2008 - 11:36pm.
Now that the holidays are over (and tax season is looming on the horizon) I thought I'd send out a happy reminder that you're invited to attend Celebration of Celts Pan-Celtic Timeline.
Celebration of Celts will be once again held at the Columbia County Fairgrounds in Chatham, NY on May 3rd & 4th; although the site will be open for setup on Friday the 2nd too.
Once again this year, we will be providing tickets, parking passes, and free firewood. One change up for consideration is that we may be providing a monetary stipend to each group to help mitigate gas prices instead of meal tickets (since many re-enactors are cooking their own food anyway).
So, if anyone in your group is interested please let me know. So far 1/3 of the groups invited are returning; I hope to see you there too!
gobae@oakandacorn.com
518-429-5270
Cheers!
Cormac McInnean
Ollamh Gobae (Mastersmith)
Ancient Celtic Clans
Home Stretch
Submitted by Gobae on Sat, 03/22/2008 - 7:50pm.
Things are finally heading into the home stretch for the Celtic Timeline planning. If TdB is interested in attending the event please let me know by March 31st, so I can make sure your tickets and passes arrive to you in a timely manner.
Alternately, if TdB members are interested in attending as individuals you're welcome to do so, either with your own area in the Timeline or as a guest at our site.
Either way just let me know. gobae@oakandacorn.com or 518-429-5270
Cormac McInnean
Ollamh Gobae (Mastersmith)
Ancient Celtic Clans
All's well that ends well
Submitted by Gobae on Mon, 05/05/2008 - 4:26pm.
Well Celebration of Celts is all done. Here's a synopsis of what we did.
This year Celebration of Celts took place at the Columbia County Fairgrounds in Chatham, NY on May 3rd &4th. This was the third year Ancient Celtic Clans has participated in the Celtic Timeline.
(Complete photos can be found here: http://www.celticclans.org/demos/coc2008.html)
Building on the success of the previous years, we continued to demonstrate spinning, weaving, baking, blacksmithing, and cooking. What was new was the addition of woodturning, cooking with a stone griddle and use of straw as bedding in our tents. All of these things were a stunning success!
Originally built to turn spokes for our cart project, this event saw the first real use of our pole lathe. http://tdbcelts.org/files/images/coc08-13.jpg We were fortunate enough to have an experienced woodturner, Joe, as one of our members. As he soon discovered the technique for a pole lathe is a bit different from modern constant rotation lathe. However, after a day of tweaking his technique he was easily able to turn out items of the same quality that he could on a modern lathe.
One of our fantastic successes was the functionality of this stone griddle. http://tdbcelts.org/files/images/coc08-16.jpg Although evidence for this is sketchy at best, it functioned unbelievably well. Here it is seen cooking oatcakes.
The public continued to be intrigued by the baking, weaving and now the woodturning. We had a LOT of interest and got complimented several times for teaching them something they didn't know; which was the main goal of the event.
For the first time we used a rope barrier. While we initially eschewed this because we wanted to engage the public, it seemed to actually increase audience participation. We think this might be because it gave the public the feeling of a "safe area" for them that they didn't have figure out for themselves.
As far as the "anachronism dept" is concerned we still have to get/make bronze replacements for our cast iron, and tweak our clothing styles, but we made a serious dent in blatant visible anachronisms (plastic containers, glassware, etc.) It was quite heartening to see and feel what a difference such a focused effort could make in the immersive experience both for us AND the public looking in.
Cormac McInnean
Ollamh Gobae (Mastersmith)
Ancient Celtic Clans
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